Is Race Baiting Part of Eric Bolling's Fox News Audition?

With Glenn Beck's coveted 5 p.m. time slot set to open up with his June 30th departure from Fox News, Eric Bolling appears to be in the running as Beck's replacement. (He, among others.) It's been Bolling, along with Andrew Napolitano, who has most often filled in for a vacationing Beck in recent months. And it's Bolling who has been enjoying a higher profile on Fox News with a steady stream of appearances on The O'Reilly Factor and Fox & Friends, for instance. (Bolling's day job is hosting Follow The Money on the Fox Business Network.)

A move into Beck's 5 p.m. slot would be a career-changer for Bolling, instantly upping his profile both on Fox News and within the conservative media. But how to generate the kind of right-wing, Obama-hating buzz that would convince Roger Ailes that Bolling is the best person to carry on the Beck fearmongering legacy? In recent months, Bolling seems to think race baiting is his ticket to cable TV success.

From the insidious implications about President Obama's birth certificate, to insinuating Obama was "chugging 40s" in an Ireland pub (while Americans suffered hardship back home), and now employing obvious race baiting language about "hoods" visiting Obama's "Hizzouse," Bolling's full-court press for the Beck job is getting downright ugly.

Note that Bolling's latest racially charged attack on Obama did not take the form of a random tweet. Instead, it was a pre-planned, televised discussion that Bolling hosted, complete with "hoodlum" graphics, in which his guest accused the President of the United States of defecating on America's allies.

And that was on a business news channel.

Glenn Beck set a whole new standard for cable news crazy during his two-plus years at Fox News. Now, as successors jockey to fill his positions, it seems Beck's tradition of race-based Obama hate would be proudly carried on if Bolling were tapped for the 5 p.m. slot.